Monday, October 29, 2012

Here On A Wire - Jenny Berkel

Oh records by lone
songwriters, adorned in quaint illustrations and full of contributions from
session players I’ve never heard of; there’s so much to learn from you. Crops
of you appear every year in local record stores and taped to streetlight posts,
with but a fraction ascending to any level of notoriety or acclaim. That’s the
risk of trudging on alone: all the riches or failures tend to fall on your
birth-name. And yet each year brings a handful of mature and unpolished gems,
consolidated by wise musicians, a tasteful palette and songwriting that yearns
to connect; Canada is positively blessed to wind up with so many records of
this quiet caliber.

Here On A Wire, the
sophomore release by Jenny Berkel, deserves recognition as a showcase for the
young Winnipeg songwriter’s overcast vein of traditional folk. And by
“traditional”, I mean hard-earned; Berkel doesn’t shy away from tough decisions
or seek to camouflage her material in studio trickery. Each song stands on account of
its own conviction and only through the appreciation of Berkel’s songwriting foundation
can Here On A Wire’s subtle arrangements intoxicate her surroundings. The
tempered, finger-picked “Love Is a Stone” converts to a bluesy groove without
missing a beat while an intimate group of strings court Berkel’s smoky vocals
over “Cover My Grave”. Clever twists aside, Berkel spends most of these eleven
tracks revealing folk tunes that often, as in the case of “All Is Undone”, rise
to the rank of softly heroic.

With year-end lists around the corner and Canada prepping
another new class of budding songwriters, it wouldn’t be the least bit
surprising to see Jenny Berkel graduate to some rightful acclaim.